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U.S. stocks rose for a second day, led by chipmakers and automobile companies, and Treasuries fell as the Federal Reserve said the economy maintained a “modest to moderate” pace of growth. Shares in the Middle East sank as the U.S. moved closer to a military strike against Syria.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) increased 0.8 percent to 1,653.08 at 4 p.m. in New York. Benchmark gauges in Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Dubai lost more than 2 percent. The S&P GSCI (SPGSCI) gauge of 24 commodities dropped 0.7 percent as metals led losses. Ten-year Treasury yields increased four basis points to 2.90 percent, while the Bloomberg U.S. Dollar Index retreated for the first time in six days. The Australian dollar rose against 15 of 16 major peers after the economy accelerated.

Micron Technology Inc. paced a rally in chipmakers as a fire forced a Korean competitor to suspend operations at a factory in China, while General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. climbed after monthly U.S. sales growth exceeded estimates. The Fed’s Beige Book survey showed consumers spent more on travel and tourism while manufacturing expanded, as investors searched for clues to the central bank’s plans for stimulus. Stocks maintained gains as a Senate panel authorized a limited military strike in Syria.

“Managers actually are fairly bullish on the environment,” Arvin Soh, a New York-based fund manager with GAM, said by phone. His firm has more than $120 billion under management. “The view has been, ‘yes we have some serious issue with Syria, but at the end of the day, growth is improving.’”

TOKYO In a shabby back-alley office in Shibuya, a Tokyo district known for youth culture and tech ventures, defectors from corporate Japan are hard at work for a little known company they fervently believe will be the country’s next big manufacturing success. Like a startup anywhere in the world, its bare bone setup crackles with an optimistic energy and urgent sense of purpose. What’s different, for Japan, is that this startup’s talent is drawn from the ranks of famous companies such as Mitsubishi, Michelin and Nissan.

Kohshi Kuwahara, 26, worked for more than two years at electronics giant Panasonic Corp. before hopping to Terra Motors Corp., a little know venture that pays far less but is out to conquer the world with its stylish electric scooters. As with his colleagues at Terra, he resiled from the hidebound culture of big Japanese companies and felt a deep sense of frustration at their eclipse by rivals such as South Korea’s Samsung and America’s Apple.

“If you’re stuck in a system that promotes just by seniority, it’s living a slow death like animals on a farm,” said Kuwahara. “I wanted to be in a tough competitive place.”

Despite having some of the developed world’s least hospitable conditions for starting a new business, Japan’s “salaryman” culture of guaranteed lifetime employment at a household name corporation is no longer the unquestioned ideal.

Pupils at St Mary’s School in Fairford Leys were asked by Connells to draw their dream home.
All the entries have been put in the estate agent’s window where homes would normally be displayed and three winners were picked.
Prizes of colouring books, pencils, art sets and sticker books were given to Luke Mullens, eight, Arwen Cox, 10 and five year old Darcie Pearce (pictured left to right with branch manager Daniel Crawley).
The winning entries will be made into postcards and used in a marketing campaign Connells is running to raise money for the school library.
The estate agent will donate money to the school for every property that successfully sells through its Fairford Leys office

Travel with us through a Buffalo Niagara that might have been, if some of the most captivating artists’ renderings created in recent years had actually come to life. Start downtown outside the gleaming Adelphia office tower, where the thriving cable company has become a big employer. Traffic around here is thick, with people pouring into the Bass Pro store that revitalized old Memorial Auditorium. Some of the customers arrive by boat at the Inner Harbor.

Looming over downtown is a skyscraper built by respected developer Bashar Issa. The Outer Harbor is dominated by an enclosed amusement park, a massive convention center and residential community, and the Buffalo Bills’ new stadium. Head north on the Niagara Thruway and your eye is drawn to the striking new Peace Bridge, proof of cross-border cooperation. In Niagara County, new attractions abound, from the below-ground aquarium near the falls, to the Wizard of Oz theme park.

Of course, none of those projects was ever built. They burst onto the scene with a banner headline, a news conference suffused with big shots, a multimillion-dollar price tag, hyperventilating praise and, of course, a dazzling artist’s rendering of the project. Predictions of surefire economic transformation follow, despite doubts over who will pay for the thing, whether it will win approval, or is even realistic. Then, years later, nothing.

It became a running joke among a few of us skeptics that seeing an artist’s rendering on the front page was the kiss of death for a project. Developers came to town like snake-oil salesmen, peddling magic elixirs guaranteed to fix what ails our economy. Or we begged big companies to build a store here, and had a hard time letting go even when it was clear it was over. Now this isn’t a “woe-is-us” type of story. We finally have real progress – and tower cranes! – in places once only imagined in colorful drawings: Canalside. HarborCenter. The former Donovan State Office Building. The medical campus. Larkinville. Still, we can’t ignore our track record of getting caught up in these grandiose visions for revival, no matter how far-fetched the ideas might seem. What does it say about us as a region that we seemingly want to believe in them?

And do all these failed fanciful visions leave us unfairly skeptical about more realistic projects when they come along?

However it has suffered from teething problems as the Government struggles to organise finance, IT and issues around moving house and even clearing people’s attics. Frustrated building companies expressed disappointment that the legal contracts around the loans were not sorted out sooner so they could start installing measures. Paul Hicks, Sustainability & Design Manager at VELUX, said it was disappointing so many people who have had an assessment have failed to carry through to a deal.

“The disappointing Green Deal results, showing conversions of assessments to be less than 1%, is a major blow to the Government’s commitment to being ‘the greenest ever’. Thus far the initiative has failed to deliver a viable framework for home improvements and consequently has simply not addressed the key issues surrounding energy efficiency in existing housing stock.” Nigel Banks, of Keepmoat, a specialist in installing efficiency measures, said builders have been unable to offer contracts because the financial packages are not yet in place.

“The take-up figures are very low, but this was to be anticipated as the legal contracts to offer Green Deal finance are not in place, meaning just a few of the 60 Green Deal providers are actually able to offer finance at present. “It is frustrating that these legal contracts were not in place sooner but we expect this to be resolved in the next few weeks and then the take-up figures for the Green Deal will begin to build in July and August,” he said. The UK has some of the draughtiest homes in Europe, leaking money out of the economy and fuelling climate change. The Coalition hope to improve the efficiency of the UK’s 26 million homes through the Green Deal and other measures introduced in January this year.

The “cashback” scheme, that offers a lump sum for installing “easy wins” like double glazing and new boilers on a first come first served basis, has been a success. Some 5,118 households have claimed £263,000 cash back – mostly for boilers. Also the new Energy Company Obligation, the requires energy companies to improve efficiency in poorer households, has made that 81,798 installations so far.

But the Green Deal is struggling.

Despite months to prepare, 600 trained builders on standby and the involvement of 40 organisations, including household names like B&Q and British Gas, it has had a slow start.